Bombers Late Comeback Not Enough Against North Stars

By Gary Moskalyk

Thunder Bay, ON – It ain’t over ’til it’s over. The North Stars played perfect hockey for 55 minutes. Goaltender Ethan Barron was making all the saves. Thunder Bay had a 5-0 lead. Sioux Lookout’s vaunted powerplay was 0-5. The question seemed to be was Barron going to get a shutout?

Jonah Smith broke the shutout bid at 14:55, Tait Howell made it 5-2 at 16:49, and Alex Lucas scored a pair at 18:35 and 19:09 as the Bombers went full throttle falling just short of a stunning comeback as Thunder Bay squeaked out a 5-4 win for their sixth win in a row.

The Bombers still had a precious 51 seconds left to send the game into overtime. Drew Caddo cleared the zone hard off the glass from deep in the North Stars’ zone with seconds left for an apparent icing. The refs ruled it touched a Bomber player on the way out. Instead of a nerve-wracking draw in the Thunder Bay zone, the puck was moved to centre-ice with five seconds left. A scrambled draw and it was all over.

Thunder Bay led 2-0 after one. Easton Mikus scored his 11th on Edison Weeks’ 10th assist. Dimitri Trahiotis doubled the lead at 14:47 on a powerplay effort. 

Cohen Tangedahl got the lone second period marker.

Connor O’Brien beat Matthew Spencer-Dahl at 7:58 of the third, and Tyler Jordan got his 5th in six games at 12:43 for a 5-0 lead. Drew Caddo drew primary assists on Thunder Bay’s middle three goals.

Smith broke the ice for Sioux Lookout with 5:05 left and it was game on after that.

Barron stopped 20 of 24 for his third win against two losses. Spencer-Dahl shunted aside 34 of 39. The North Stars clicked on two of four powerplays. Trahiotis, O’Brien and Tangedahl also had assists for Thunder Bay. Cedrik Robidoux had two assists for Sioux Lookout and Smith added an assist for a two-point game for the Bombers.  

The teams play game three at 1:30 today.

A Gardens crowd of 496 witnessed an historic game.